5 Responses to Cranky on the Web (March 29 – April 2)

RE: Your article on Delta cutting ties with Midwest. While there may be no mention of it on Midwest’s web site, I did get an e-mail from Midwest a few days ago announcing the split (I don’t know if I got it simply because I am a member of Midwest’s miles program, or because I took advantage of the partnership in the past to earn NWA miles while flying Midwest).

It was pretty straight forward e-mail, no information that wasn’t in your writeup.

In your article on the AA/B6 thing, you said the arrangement “isn’t a codeshare.” Dumb question, but do customers really care about code sharing, whether they know it or not? For the life of me, I can’t figure out how I benefit from flying “NW 8825 operated as DL 523.” (And then there was the time as a UA baggage handler that I had an interlined bag destined for said NW 8825, to a city it didn’t serve out of this airport. I had a heck of a time trying to figure out where that bag was supposed to go. Turned out, it was a flight out of a co-terminal on one of NW’s codeshare partners. So I postulate that codeshares add a level of unnecessary confusion.)

I don’t think a customer particularly cares if it’s a codeshare or not, but when they’re looking to book, they’re usually more likely to see the “online” options, which I put in quotes since it’s really just codesharing and not actually online. It’s all about display in the booking game. With a codeshare, they’d be likely to find more bookings.